Advanced Hellenistic Greek

The undisputed centre-piece of Graeco-roman literature in the third century BCE is the Greek Pentateuch, or 'Septuagint" (LXX). The LXX became the de facto liturgical text of countless synagogues and early churches. As the basis forearly Christian liturgy, devotion, theology, and propaganda, the Septuagint emerged as the most significant body of literature in late antiquity. This course will focus on the translation of selections from the Septuagint, providing students with the opportunity: 1) to improve their Greek reading ability; 2) to analyze the Septuagintal texts grammatically and syntactically; 3) to examine the characteristics and style of Jewish translational Greek; 4) to study the nature and degree of linguistic interference from the source language through a comparison of the Greek text with the Hebrew original. Seminar. 3 tests, class participation. Prerequisite: at least 1 year of Greek (or equivalent) and 1 year of Hebrew.